also, I'm still unsure about the violets....I did leave them outside overnight because on one of the directions it said for the seeds to be cold for 24hrs...so I'm going to bring them in today and cover them for darkness and once they start to germinate, take the cover off
the plant light area is approx 70 deg.F ~ I know they like it on the cooler side ~ does everyone still keep them under their lights until you can put them outside?
I really love my plant list and am really thankful to everyone here. My cousin couldn't believe my seed sow list. I showed it to him to see if he wanted to try anything. He ordered me two pkts of seeds from burpee and with the shipping it came to $9.50!!! just for two pkts. We have hundreds of seeds, could NEVER have purchased such a fab. variety.
In addition, my new rack with the lights is working out great. I've been pricing plant lights and for the money we spent, I would have only been able to get a weeny little single floor light. I got the tips for the rack and lights from people here on DG. It's been really terrific! I only hope I can make the gardens look as impressive this spring and summer.
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #3
A friend of mine wintersowed some seeds I gave her last year, and that worked fine (although the suggestion to stratify mystified me also -- maybe the seeds need scarification or nicking, which can also be provided by the freeze/thaw of wintersowing?). However, her plants didn't start blooming until midsummer... so I may start a few seeds inside this year.
Ok, I don't think butterfly weed needs all that much cold, one year I tried WS and it took it forever to come up in the spring and it took forever for them to bloom, last year I sowed it on the picnick table early in the spring and I had blooms way before I had blooms on the ones WS the year before that. I'll stick with putting the jugs out around the first of April. The seeds have been in the fridge anyway.
I need to go clean ice off the sidewalk so dad can walk to the truck for church this morning :)
thanks, I think I'll start them inside. I really like them and only grew them once ~ the monarc's just loved it.
LeBug, maybe the sun will be enough to release your dirt bags by the time you get back from church? the sun is shining here....still snow on the ground here but very bright and cheery
I went out and put salt on the side walk for the ice and it is already covered up by snow, no sun here 20 degrees and snowing, beautiful big flakes LOL No church for dad this morning, it started snowing soon as I put the salt down :) It's suppose to get to 50 something tomorrow but I think I'll go ahead and get another bag just incase those don't thaw out, can't take the chance that I won't be able to use the dirt.
Suzy...... I going crazy here looking at the Dahlia seeds. I pick them up and put them down, have tried to hide them and then bring them back out. It is time yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know winter not over fully yet here, but we been in the 60's and 70's for days now and looksliek it gonan holdfor a bit more. Think it safe to start em yet??????? ( bitting fingernails? )
starlight, in your zone I'd think it would be ok to sow them now. The tubers are hardy in your zone, aren't they? Are you starting your seed indoors?
Starlight - you and I are doing the same thing with the Dahlia seeds - LOL!!
I was gonan start the seed indoors, but remebered that Suzy said they grow like weeds and not to start them to early, but forget when she said and we all have like a million potst and can't find it through all our thread journeys.
Gemini... I don't know about the tubers. I just gettign started good with these Dahlias and I did order a few tubers but they wont arrive til sometime in the middle of next month i think it is.
(I caved on the dahlias). :-P
Stokes says "GREENHOUSE: Sow Feb. 15th - Apr. 15th for May sales and July blooms." Although I don't have my GH in place, I hope to have it here within the next couple of weeks. So hopefully I'll be OK with starting them now.
Hello! You all have been very busy! It took me over an hour to catch up on everyone's plantings, babies, weather, and general comings and goings. I love all the pictures....both animal and vegetable.
I've been planting like a fool myself have already extended my space....and yet I continue to plant. I set out 20 WS containers yesterday, but I'm trying something different this year. I'm doing smaller batches in clear Solo cups with baggies on the top. Hopefully with this method I'll still get a good variety but won't have to make a career out of planting them this spring. I am so bad about thinning. If a seedling shows a desire to live by peeking it's lil head above the ground, I can never bring myself to cull it out. I've decided the best way around that is just to plant fewer seeds. (Now watch me have poor germination this year and end up with only one of everything.) LOL!
I suffered a tragic planting accident the other day. I was trying to make more space on the mat and had trays scattered everywhere. I stumbled over one of them upsetting it in the process. In trying to catch myself I upset the 2nd one. Then the 3rd. Then the 4th. It was like a bad Lucy episode being shown in slow motion. Do I even need to try and describe my level of P-O'dness? I think not.
So I scooped everything up and put it into a commutinty tray and am now trying to figure out what's what. I've got an ID on every seedling but one. Suzy..... ...oh Suzy? Have you grown the Green Gold from seed? My mystery plant is either that or a strong infestation of weeds (Which is not entirely impossible. I have got THE WORST bag of Miracle grow I have ever had the misforture to purchase. It's hard as a rock and filled with clumps of clay, sticks and other debris and my PO level on that is nothing to sneeze at either.) In any case, if you have grown it from seed do you remember what it looked like? Could these tall grass-looking seedlings be the bupleurum?
Oh dear Lala - that's one of my biggest fears - and I nearly dumped a flat yesterday when moving things around, so while I didn't have the level of PO'dness that you had, I live with that fear every time I move a flat. It looks like they made it through pretty well though! Consider it a test of their will to live, and it may have been good exercise for toughening up those stems! (OK, it was worth a try :> )
While we're waiting for the Illustrious Illoquin, or Gemini, to weigh in on starting Dahlias in my zone :) anyone care to give me opinions on starting maters and peppers now? Or am I too early for my zone?
Yes it's too early, I won't start mine for quite a while yet, I'll look it up and see when I started them last year it was sometime in March I think and the lights I had them under were quite tall and still the plants were bending under them, I'd wait a while once they get to a certain point they grow like mad! And I would start your peppers a little before your tomatoes takes them a little longer to get size on them like a couple of weeks difference, I'll check my notes and get back to you :)
Oh La, I'm so sorry about your trays, I worry about that too esp. when I'm carrying them up 13 steep stairs to transplant them into pots! I hope you get it all figured out!
I agree with Lea on the toms and peppers Dryad. I won't start mine for another month and I'm the pusher of all plant-starting envelopes. I've REALLY pushed it this year with the impending greenhouse, but geeze the thing is only 8 X 8.5. Just how much do I think is gonna fit in there?
Last year I started mine March 10th, this year I'm waiting until the very last of March or the first of April and start my pepper a couple of weeks before my tomatoes. My tomatoes last year when I took them outside were around 18" high! My tallest lights only go about 15" high.
star-because of the same problem I have started cutting and pasting info into a text document and filing it in a "germination" folder on my desktop. I always think I will go back and find it, but then I don't and the tips people are giving here aren't typical easy to find ones.
Starlight, I sowed Dbl. Extreme in 2006 from T&M just dinky little dahlias only got about 24" tall Feb. 13th. and they were way too tall for my lights by the time I put them out to harden outside :) Back then I think I started putting them out around the last of April but not sure, now you can't trust the weather in April unless you have a greenhouse and if you do :-p
Wait a minute, you're in z8 a double :-P :-P I want your zone you probably could start yours now :-P LOL
This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 12:45 PM
La, bless your heart! I would have been quite ill tempered for some time, LOL.
Since I've got plenty of seed, I went ahead and sowed a few dahlias. Not sure if I'll be able to keep 'em going, but we'll see.
I always start my tomatoes St. Patty's weekend, on or around March 17th which works out great for me here. Plenty of time to get established, hardened off and produce abundantly.
I've never started the peppers earlier but they take longer to germinate and get going, so I am going to this year at the same time as the basil. I wanted to ask Critter...
Critter, when do you start your peppers and basil?
LeBug, were you looking for Jacob Kline seeds? I'm sitting here with a brown paper lunch sack full dried blooms in my lap. I haven't seen the first sign of a seed. Aren't Monarda seeds suppose to be teeny tiny? When I shake'em upside down, nothing falls out. When I break it apart I see nothing that even resembles a seed. I was hoping to offer you some. :(
They are tiny, and I've never been able to find them either.
I give peppers about a 10 week head start (add a week or two if you don't have a heat mat for quicker germination). Since they go out 2 weeks later than the tomatoes (which get an 8 week start), that means I'm sowing both of them around mid-March.
If I'm doing basil in 2 inch pots, I start it at the same time as the peppers (basil also goes out after things have warmed up, which means the very end of May here). If I'm using smaller cell packs, 48 or 72 per tray, then I give basil only a 6 to 8 week head start. You can also direct-sow basil after all danger of frost, but I'm generally too impatient for a taste to wait that long.
Who knows anything about germinating Asarina? I just sowed 4 varieties, was going to put them on the heat mat, then checked Tom Clothier's site... his info says start them cool (65-70'F, I think) and if no germination move to cooler and then back to cool... that almost sounds like they could/should be winter sown. But elsewhere I could swear I've seen to give them a warm start, 75-80'F. ??
C-dawg - you sound like me trying to find those darn Jacob Cline seeds! I've done the same thing two years in a row! If there are any in there they will look just like small sesame seeds.
Re: the red Monarda, I spent hours and hours scouring those things for seeds. In the end I found a total of 4 seeds. In the very end I lost those 4 seeds. At the end of the end I bought a package from Country Crossing which I should have done at the beginning.
Dawg, thanks, it's been a while since I've seen mondra seed so couldn't tell you but everyone on this site is telling me there aren't any seeds so either the bugs get them or the birds do, I'll check that seed site out and see if they have a picture sure would appreciate the seeds, thanks for thinking about me, I'm off to see if there is a picture of the mondra seeds 8^)
Well, I guess I'm one that jumps the gun on the maters. This is my first crop for the early season, These will be the early tomatoes and Next week I will start the next batch for the warmer end of the season.
dawg, looks like they are small:
http://www.theseedsite.co.uk/db14a.html
Flower - I've done the same thing with copying and pasting the advice and words of wisdom - my doc is up to 24 pages...
Sorry Critter, I don't know nuthin' 'bout Asarina.
One thing I learned last year w/ my veggies is that I am staggering the planting time this year-last year I was giving veggies away to everyone prctically that went by our house, this year I want fresh all summer long-I am apparantly a bone head & didn't think-duh!!
just chalk it up to a learning experience Fairy.
Yeah I learned that if you drive around subs looking for newer gardeners you can get free veggies!!!LOL I am about to sow some more seeds today, have been so busy w/ my co-op:) It has been good so far, just need to get more ordered to fill flats.....MIL was here today & laughed at my dinig room-all the seeds, soil, cups, etc sitting around!!!
That site helps! It tells me where to look for them, "seeds sit on a pad at the base of the calyx"
This site says they don't come true from seed. I wonder if they would still be a red color?
http://www.paghat.com/beebalmjacobkline.html
Yet this site says Park's sells seeds for $19.95! But when I go to Parks Seeds, it's only for plants.
http://marketplace.hgtv.com/Product.aspx?Lid=2896-44335&From=iFP
I suppose dividing them is the best way to get a true Jacob Kline.
Ok, I saw a couple things I can help with --
The Dahlias need a 4 week head start and they like heat -- heat mat, lights, the works. They take a while to germinate, so go ahead and do them now, Star...but Dryad, you have to wait until about April 1. :)) I might start some earlier, and if they get too tall, take cuttings from them and root the cuttings in soilless mix, over a heat mat with lights. I will need to make sure they are covered with a plastic bag, but I believe I will have double and maybe triple the plants.
The butterfly weeds come in 2 varieties: Perenniala and annual. The A. curvassica is the tender one, and it is very fast and very easy, but an indoor head start will certainly benefit it. I bought the A. tuberosum as a plant, so am not sure. The other ones I have I am wintersowing because of space copnstraints here under lights, but I have never grown them before, so what do I know?
Critter, Asarina is easy -- not slow, not fast, just regular. Indoors under lights. I used a heat mat, but my gut tells me it wasn't really necessary except I am in the cold basement. Put them in a pot that is 4" deep, so they are on a heat mat, but have 4" of insulation. Now is the time to sow them. Do NOT overwater. Asarina does take a long time to bloom, though. My biggest problem with it last year was keeping the baby seedlings close enough to the lights, yet have a stake sticking way up for them to climb. The stake was in the way every time I bumped the lights. I used a thin skewer like you'd use for melon.
.......forgot to say that Jacob Kline is grown from cuttings in June...Monarda is a mint and stem cuttings are easy. Do it outside or inside with heat mat, lights and a baggie overall. Don't tug on cuttings to see if they are rooted...they are rooted when you see new top growth. Wait 3 weeks after that and pot 'em up singly. They will be ready to plant in the garden in late August.
Suzy
Wow c-dawg - I'm going to try that diluted milk formula for mildew!
Suzy, no idea on the green gold?
Thanks dawg, I think I'll just go ahead and order some red from T&M then get some seeds to the jacob kline next year if I can find them, these get three feet that should be good :)
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/8452.html
Suzy I have a Jacob Kline plant. I guess I can divide it this year right. Before all the ice it had green showing.
For everyone looking to get bee balm seed I have a tagged page in the tagged pages.
Veronica
Hey Lea
We will try to get seed from my Jacob Kline in the fall
Veronica
Lala_,
Sorry, I didn't even see that post. The Bupleurum Green Gold should have a peculiar colored blue leaf. VERY ODDLY COLORED. Those aren't far enough along to tell, but they don't really loook like what I remember.
Suzy